Memories

A warm, heartfelt, overwhelming THANK YOU! to Sue’s husband, Stan. Thanks to Stan flying over a million miles with American, Sue and I get to reap the benefits – first class upgrades, which we cashed in for this trip. Yes, we’ll be ‘roughing it!’ Also, a huge thanks to Sue who worked hard at exploring all the great possibilities and developed an outstanding itinerary for us. I’ll be leaving Tucson at 9:45 a.m.  Sue leaves Nashville a little after 10 and we meet in Dallas to catch the 9 hour 35 minute flight to Frankfurt. I have a close connection so pray I don’t run into any problems. I’ve already asked Sue to do whatever it takes to delay the departure if I’m not there.

Thursday, Sept. 18th 7:20 AM Frankfurt time

While all of you will still be sleeping, we’ll catch the rail at the airport to the main rail station in downtown Frankfurt. Our first class ticket on the Eurail awaits at 1 PM, but if we get through customs in good time we may be able to catch the earlier train.

Four hours later we arrive in Paris where we then head to the RER (subway). We’ll use our best French possible and order ‘un billet si vou plei.’ (Please pardon – our spelling is probably as bad as our French!) But ‘un billet’ will buy us 10 tickets on either the RER or the bus in and around Paris. After our RER ride we catch a bus, and then we’ll have about a 2-block walk to our hotel while we gaze at the Eiffel Tower! Yes, our hotel is real close to the tower.

Friday-Saturday

Paris, Paris, Paris! Yes, we will see and do all we can while trying NOT to look like tourists! Hopefully we’ll be able to post some pictures when we stop at an Internet café for a break.

Sunday, Sept. 21st

We depart Paris and catch the Eurail to Stuttgart. Our friend Colonel Martha McSally will pick us up at the main train station. Since we don’t have a cell phone that works internationally, our plan is to meet at the Starbucks in case we don’t see her.

We’ll spend the rest of the day and I’m sure into the night catching up with our friend.

Monday, Sept. 22nd

Today we head to Fussen, Germany, which is in the Bavarian Alps. This quaint little town is the home to the most famous of King Ludwig’s castles. It’s the castle that the Disney castle was modeled after. Check out great pictures here or go on googleearth.com and see the incredible pictures that others have posted in and around this town.

http://www.mediaspec.com/castles/schwan/index.html

Tuesday, Sept.  23rd

Today we’ll probably tour the castle and hike around the area exploring and finding great cafés. I know how to order café (coffee) and apfel strudel, so I’m sure we’ll be eating real healthy while we’re gone! We also know- Ich habe ein bier! See if you can figure that out. Too bad we don’t drink!

Wednesday, Sept.  24th

Sometime today we will catch the rail to Munich. While in this area we definitely plan on doing a tour of Dachau Concentration camp. How sobering to think of the atrocities done in places like this. I’m sure it will be an experience we’ll never forget. Here is one site, but if you google it you will find many. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005214

Thursday, Sept. 25th

More of Munich- possibly a bike tour around the city or more apfel strudel. We’ll hop the rail to Martha’s in Stuttgart sometime today, depending upon when she’ll be home from work.

Friday, Sept. 26-Saturday, Sept. 27th

On Friday, Martha and her golden retriever, Penelope, will be going with us to Interlaken Switzerland. Europe is very pet friendly so she’ll do everything we do- well almost. We plan to take the train to the top of the mountain, which is the highest altitude in Europe. Be sure to look around this site- this area is beautiful! We also will do some hiking. One of the most scenic trails requires a cable car ride to the trailhead!

http://www.interlaken.ch/index.php?id=53&L=3

Sunday, Sept. 28th

Not sure which route we’ll take back to Stuttgart from Interlaken, but all of Switzerland looks amazingly beautiful. We’ll try to post some great pictures as we can. We will stay with Martha in Stuttgart tonight.

Monday, Sept. 29th

Today will be an easy day. We may visit some sights in Stuttgart, and then the rail up to either Frankfurt or Mainz. We will probably stay in Mainz because that is the spot we leave on our Rhine River cruise tomorrow.

Tuesday, Sept. 30th

Our Eurail pass entitles us to a free riverboat ride along the Rhine River. We can ride the boat or the rail all day on one ticket. So our thought is if we see a castle or town we’d like to visit, we’ll just hop off at that city and then board the rail to catch up with the riverboat at the next town. Check out our ride here: http://k-d.com/ Click the British flag at the top right corner to view in English.

Wednesday, Oct. 1

We’ll spend our final morning in Frankfurt – maybe one last café and apfel strudel before heading home. We fly into Chicago and then back to Tucson and Nashville… hopefully with lots of great memories and tons of pictures!